Of course, they had to kick the whole thing around a bit longer, each adding their own theories, but to her relief the interest slowly waned and they soon began talking about other things. All in all, it was a rather pleasant and benign evening.
“Thanks for inviting me tonight,” Sunny told Aubrey as they drove home.
“And thanks for coming. I can tell my friends really liked you.”
“And I like your friends.”
“How about Wesley?” Aubrey asked. “Did you like him too?”
“Sure. He’s interesting. I think being a freelance writer sounds like a great job. He travels all over.”
“Well, I got the impression he was interested in you too, Sunny. Do you think you’d want to go out with him sometime?”
“I, uh, I don’t know.”
“He asked me if I thought it was a good idea for him to ask you out. I told him I didn’t see why not.”
“Oh.”
“Unless you just don’t like him.”
“He seemed nice, Aubrey. But I don’t know…”
“How about if we go out together? You and Wesley and Mitchell and me? Would that make you more comfortable?”
“Maybe.”
“How about if we go to Round-Up together?” Aubrey suggested. “If we do some ticket swapping, we could probably even sit together. And that’s not even like a real date. It’s more just friends doing something together, you know?”
“Okay.” Sunny nodded. “It sounds like a good plan.”
“Cool. I’ll get it all set up then. We’ll shoot for opening day. Or maybe Thursday.”
“All right.” And, as she said this, Sunny realized that she had agreed to stay on a few more days. That’s when she remembered her promise to Hank—that she’d come to their barbecue on the first evening of Round-Up. Well, she supposed she could do both. And then maybe she’d head home.
Chapter Twenty-one
Sunny slept in on Sunday morning. Then she pulled on her jeans, a T-shirt, and an old Roper ball cap she’d found in the closet. Slipping into Cindy’s garden, she spent the next several hours weeding and pruning and generally cleaning the plot up. She knew it was a small thing, but it was her way of thanking the Lowensteins for their hospitality. Plus it was good therapy.
“What are you doing out—” Cindy stopped and slapped her hand over her mouth. “My word, did you do all this?”
Sunny stood up and brushed the dirt from her hands, then smiled.
“Sunny, Sunny, Sunny.” Cindy came over and threw her arms around her, holding her in a long, tight hug. “I’d been thinking you were just short from being an angel, and now I think I was wrong. You are an angel.”
“I love gardening.”
“So do I. But I’ve had my bad back and then I was so busy and…I just had to let it go. I kept thinking of hiring someone to come out here. But, you know, a garden’s kind of personal.” She paused and looked around with wide eyes.
“I hope I didn’t overstep my—”
“No, no. You did it exactly as I’d have done. If I’d had the energy, that is.” Cindy walked down the path between the sunflowers and beans. “Just look at this garden. It’s lovely, Sunny. How can I ever thank you?”
Sunny’s smile grew larger. “You already did, Cindy. You’ve made me feel comfortable and welcome in your home.”
Cindy frowned. “Even after Doug jumped on you that night you were in Lenora’s room?” She chuckled. “He did feel bad afterwards, when I set him straight. But you caught him by surprise.”
“It probably didn’t help that I was in my pajamas at the time.” Cindy laughed. “Yes. I’m sure that didn’t.”
“My grandmother liked to garden,” Sunny said in an absent sort of way.
“Your grandmother must’ve been a wonderful woman, Sunny. She certainly did a fine job with you.”
“Hello?” called what sounded like Echo’s voice. “Anybody out here? Grandma?”
“Over here, Sweetie,” called Cindy. “In my lovely garden.”
“Oh.” Echo joined them. “There you both are.”
“And just look what Sunny did to my garden, Echo.”
Echo looked around as if she expected to see something bad. “What?”
“She weeded it and fixed it up.”
Echo nodded and smiled now. “It does look nice.”
“I’ve been of a mind to ask Echo to help,” Cindy told Sunny. “But I don’t want to distract her from riding.”
“I could help here,” Echo offered.
“Now you don’t need to,” Sunny told her.
“Do you want to ride with me today?” Echo’s eyes were hopeful. Sunny grinned. “You don’t have to ask twice.”
“Great. Let’s go get saddled up. Dad’s already out there getting Chase ready.”
“Chase?”
“Yeah. Grandpa’s horse. Dad rides him sometimes.”
“Chase needs to be worked with,” Cindy explained.
“Oh, if you’re riding with your dad…” Sunny paused. “Well, you don’t need a riding buddy.”
“But you wanted to ride,” Echo protested.
“You already have—”
“Sunny,” interrupted Cindy, “you already told Echo you wanted to ride. Just because Cody is along isn’t any reason not to. Now you two girls get going. And, Echo, tell your dad that I expect you to stay for dinner. I plan to call Hank and tell him to get himself over here as well.”
Echo nodded. “Okay.”
“Are you planning to go into the foothills?” Cindy asked Echo.
“Yeah. Maybe.”
Cindy looked back at Sunny. “You make sure you take a water bottle and wear a cool shirt and a good hat.” She pointed to Echo. “And you come inside and get some food to pack with you.”
“Is this going to be a long ride?” Sunny asked.
“Might be,” Echo told her. “But we’ll be back in time for dinner.”
“Okay.” Sunny nodded, unable to hide her eagerness at getting to go on what sounded like a real ride. “This sounds like it could be fun.” And yet, even as she proclaimed this, she felt apprehensive. She hadn’t spoken to Cody since that uncomfortable scene at Trina’s “barbecue.” What if her sudden exit had embarrassed him in front of his friends?
Chapter Twenty-two
Sunny was right. The trail ride was fun, and no one mentioned the barbecue. Cody, dressed in worn Wrangler jeans, roper boots, a faded plaid western shirt, and straw cowboy hat, took the lead. And since Sunny was the inexperienced rider, she followed him, with Echo riding behind her. Sunny didn’t mind that they didn’t talk much along the way. Other than Cody pointing out an occasional deer, rabbit, or interesting bird, the ride was mostly quiet and peaceful. Delightful.
It was around three when Cody stopped his horse beneath a grove of poplar trees next to the barely trickling creek and got down. “How about a break?”
“Sounds good to me.” Sunny reached for her water bottle and took a swig.
“And I’ve got treats,” Echo announced. “Grandma’s sugar cookies and some fruit.”
They let their horses take a drink, then secured them to a tree before they sat in a grassy area and Echo shared the “treats” her grandmother packed for them. “I wish Sunny could do a cattle drive with us someday,” Echo said dreamily.
“A real cattle drive?” Sunny questioned.
Echo nodded. “I just did my first one last year. It was so cool. We come up this way, bringing Grandpa’s cattle up to the highlands to graze. It’s really fun.”
“When do you do that?”
“Later in the fall,” Cody said quietly.
“Oh.” Sunny tried to hide the longing she felt at the idea of a real cattle drive. “Well, I’ll be back in Portland by then.”
“Why do you have to go back there?” Echo asked.
Sunny laughed. “Because it’s my home.”
“But you don’t have a job there,” Echo pointed out.
“Yes, don’t
remind me.” Sunny forced lightness into her voice. “I’ve been trying not to think about that.”
“Maybe you could get a job here,” Echo suggested.
“It’s a little late in the year to get a teaching job,” Cody told her.
“Maybe another kind of job,” Echo said hopefully.
“But my home is in Portland,” Sunny said again. “I have to go home, Echo.”
Echo stared down at the stick she was poking into the ground and frowned.
“Just because you want someone to stay with you doesn’t mean they can,” Cody told Echo. “You know that people have their own lives to live. Just be glad that Aunt Aubrey brought Sunny here to visit for a while.”
“I am.” Echo nodded.
“And maybe you’ll want to come to Portland sometime,” Sunny told Echo. “You’d be more than welcome to stay with me. I even have a guest room.”
“Really?” Echo glanced up. “I could stay with you?”
“If your dad didn’t mind. I’d love it. I could show you around Portland, the museums and theaters and things. Or we could call Aunt Aubrey and go shopping.”
Echo’s eyes lit up. “That would be cool.”
Sunny smiled. “It really would.”
Cody had stretched back now, with his hat over his eyes, his legs crossed at the ankles, and a grass blade sticking out between his teeth. He looked like a real cowboy.
Sunny couldn’t help staring. The way Cody and Echo lived—riding horses, living in wide, open spaces, fresh air, taking it slow and easy—seemed almost unreal. She looked away. For her, it was unreal. Someone else’s life…someone else’s dream. Not hers.
“I’m going to ride up to Mom’s tree,” Echo said suddenly. “Do you mind, Dad?”
“No. Don’t stay too long, though. We should head back by four.” “Okay.” She cocked her head toward Sunny. “You don’t mind waiting, do you?”
“No, not at all.”
Echo mounted her horse and the sounds of his hooves slowly faded until it was only Cody and Sunny. Even though Cody was ignoring her, Sunny felt uncomfortable. Like she was an intruder, like she didn’t belong here. She quietly stood and started to walk away. She wouldn’t go far. Just far enough to create some space. She needed some space.
“Where are you going?” Cody was sitting up now, his knees pulled up, elbows resting on them.
“Uh, just stretching my legs.” This was partly true—she was a bit stiff from the ride. But mostly she was uncomfortable being around Cody.
He adjusted his hat to see her better. “Did I scare you away?”
She forced a smile. “No, of course not. I thought you were napping and I—”
“Look, I was hoping I could talk to you. Alone.”
“Alone?” She glanced in the direction Echo had gone.
“I didn’t ask Echo to leave, though. That was just convenient.”
“Oh.” She cautiously walked back and sat on a boulder a few feet from him. Placing her hands on her knees, she gazed evenly at him. “What did you want to talk about?”
“For starters, I want to apologize.”
“Apologize?” She blinked and waited.
“I want to apologize for how you were treated at Trina’s yesterday. I should’ve said something then, but I was…well, kind of caught off guard.”
She just waited.
“And while it’s not my place to apologize for Trina’s actions, I can apologize for not speaking out in your defense. My dad was a much better man than I was.”
“Your father is a good guy.”
He nodded. “I know. And my father thinks you’re pretty special too. He was hopping mad yesterday. If it makes you feel any better, he left shortly after you did.”
She shrugged.
“At the time I didn’t know why Trina acted like that. It seemed so out of the blue. But when I got home, Dad straightened me out.”
“He did?”
Cody nodded, pulling up another long blade of grass. “Dad’s theory is that Trina was jealous of you.”
“Oh.”
Cody looked up now. “Not that I said or did anything to make Trina jealous. I honestly don’t think I did.”
“But maybe she just felt threatened by having another single woman around.” Sunny wished she hadn’t said this. Really, it was Aubrey’s theory, not hers.
“I don’t know why.” He slowly shook his head.
“No, I don’t either.”
“I wanted to say something else, Sunny.” His eyes were sincere. “I know I don’t know you that well. I’ve only known you for a few days— less than a week. But I can’t quit thinking of—”
“Dad!” screamed Echo from up above on the hill. “Dad!”
Without another word, Cody jumped on his horse and shot up the hill. And with a bit less grace, Sunny hopped on Brownie Anne and the good horse, without much direction, followed the trail of dust until they came to a clearing where both Echo and Cody were still on their horses, staring at what appeared to be the remains of an old tree. A tree that had been split in half by what only Sunny could assume was lightning.
“It must’ve been from that storm in late August,” Cody said sadly. “Remember how wild that night was?”
Tears streamed down Echo’s cheeks. “It was Mom’s tree,” she sobbed.
“I’m sorry,” Sunny said quietly. “It looks like it was a beautiful tree.”
Cody nodded. “It was.”
“And now it’s gone,” Echo sobbed. “It’s dead. The lightning killed it.”
Sunny felt more like an intruder than ever. They did not need her around to witness their grief. So she gently pulled the reins to turn Brownie Anne around, and they slowly made their way back down the trail, back to the creek, where she let the old horse have another drink and waited for father and daughter to return.
But as she stood there, she wondered: what had Cody been about to say to her? She knew he’d been saying he hadn’t known her for long, and he’d seemed uneasy about what he was about to say. It was clear their conversation could’ve gone one of two ways. The first route seemed the most likely, especially following the talk she’d just had with Echo about maintaining their fledgling friendship over the miles. Of course, that had to be it. She should’ve known that she’d stepped over the line. Really, what sensible adult went around inviting a young girl—someone she barely knew—to visit in a big city? And what kind of parent wouldn’t see that as some kind of a warning flag? Naturally, that had made Cody uneasy. And he’d been about to tell her so—that he’d only known her less than a week and here she was acting like it was okay to invite Echo into her life. Really, why had she done that?
On the other hand—and she hardly wanted to allow herself to go this route—what if Cody had been about to express a feeling for her? It seemed possible that the next line coming from him might’ve been that, although he’d only known her a short while, he was developing feelings for her. Wasn’t that possible? Or was that only in movies? And in dreams?
She weighed this against his slightly awkward apology regarding Trina’s bad manners yesterday. And he was right: it really wasn’t his place to apologize for Trina, unless the two were a couple and seriously involved. Perhaps that was it. Perhaps that was exactly what he’d been trying to tell her. Of course, that made the most sense. And Sunny was simply playing the role of a sentimental fool to try to imagine this in any other sort of light. What had she been thinking?
It was about thirty minutes before Cody and Echo came down, but the tears and all traces of them were gone. Echo actually seemed in fairly good spirits, though Cody was quiet.
“We’ll have to head back now in order to make it to the ranch in time for dinner,” Cody said as he and Echo gave their horses a quick drink. And just like they’d come, Cody led the way, Echo brought up the end, and stuck in the middle, Sunny let Brownie Anne have her lead and the dependable old horse took her flawlessly down the mountain as if she understood how much Sunny’s heart was hurti
ng.
Back at the horse barn, they all hurried to get the saddles off, quickly brushing down the horses, then turning them out to pasture. “I’m going to run ahead,” Cody told them, “to make sure Cindy remembered to call Dad.”
“You know,” Echo told Sunny as they finished up and walked back toward the house, “I was really upset at first, but then Dad helped me understand that it was okay.”
“What was okay?” Sunny studied the young girl’s face—her sincere brow and serious, dark eyes—as they walked.
“That Mom’s tree is gone. It’s like everything changes, and that’s how life is. And then we looked around until we found a baby tree bravely growing just a few feet away—right in the midst of the rubble from the fallen tree.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Dad and I cleared around it, moving away the branches and cleaning up a space around the tree. Then we got some rocks and made a little circle around the tree.” Echo smiled. “I even gave it some water from my water bottle.”
Sunny smiled back. “That’s so sweet.”
“I’ll keep checking on the new tree now. Someday it’ll be as big as the other one.”
“Aren’t you glad you went up there now?” Sunny told her as they stood by the bunkhouse. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have known the big tree had fallen and the baby tree needed a little help.”
Echo nodded. “Yes. You’re right.” She hugged Sunny. “See you at dinner.”
Sunny felt a lump in her throat as she went into the bunkhouse. Thankfully, Aubrey wasn’t around to see her quiet tears. She didn’t even know why she was crying exactly. But something deep within felt as if it had twisted so hard and so sharp that it hurt, and that pain was making her cry.
She splashed cool water on her face, quickly cleaned up, changed into a fresh shirt, and hurried back to the house in time to hear Cindy ringing the dinner bell. “Hey, there you are.” She smiled. “Did you have a good ride? You look a little flushed. Hopefully the heat didn’t get to you.”
“It was a truly memorable ride,” Sunny said. “Can I help you?”
Love Finds You in Pendleton, Oregon Page 19